[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 106 (Thursday, August 4, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 4, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                        GPO IS DOING A GOOD JOB

  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, we have all been thinking about health 
care. I got to thinking last night about the health care bills that we 
have been asked to review, so I asked my staff to have them put on my 
desk.
  And sitting in front of me right now are 15 of the health care bills 
and the reports and resolutions that have been printed by the 
Government Printing Office. I am not here to talk about health.
  It occurred to me that we do not give credit where credit is due in 
the Congress. I think Members of Congress take the services of the 
Government Printing Office for granted. It is like turning on a light 
switch, you turn it on; pop, it is done.
  We call on them to do things literally overnight. And to the great 
credit of the Government Printing Office, they do their job. They 
produce on time and they meet the needs of rapidly changing policy 
decisions here in the Congress.
  In 1973, the GPO had 8,527 employees. Today, about 20 years later, 
more than 20 years later, the GPO has 4,299. They have almost cut their 
staff in half. The agency has trimmed down 381 positions just this 
fiscal year since October 1 of last year.
  Even with the fewer staff, the Government Printing Office has 
developed competitive contracting programs with the private sector. It 
has brought in private printers. It has modernized its in-house 
capabilities, thanks to congressional approval to do so.
  My comments today come from the fact that when I started reviewing 
some of these bills the last few days, I realized, though, there are 
those of us here who criticize the GPO--as a matter of fact, there are 
some who would like to do away with the GPO's ability to produce, 
literally overnight, documents such as these in front of me. Having 
these documents in hand is essential to our ability to move from 
various health care bills, to crime, to defense appropriation bills--
and to budget documents, on our very rapidly changing schedules.
  I do not think we could do our work as Members of the Senate without 
the GPO. I do not agree with many of the proposals in these bills, but 
it is the availability of reports and bills like this that give us a 
chance to make proper decisions. They are absolutely essential.
  I will speak later about the necessity for reports on health care 
bills, but right now, I would say this: We are not able, those of us 
who live a great distance from this place, to get comments from our 
States and from our communities without documents like these.
  I wanted to come to the Senate floor today to say, were it not for 
GPO's valuable assistance in providing these documents, the people in 
the outlying areas of this country would not even know what is in these 
bills.
  So I hope others in the Senate will join me in saying to the 
Government Printing Office: You are doing a great job. And so long as 
you do this kind of a job, you are going to continue to have my 
support.
  Mr President, I ask unanimous consent that a factsheet on these 
documents in front of me be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                               Fact Sheet

       Based upon the statistical abstract of the United States 
     for 1993 the purchasing power of the dollar is about 3 times 
     what a $1.00 is worth today.
       In 1973, the GPO had a direct appropriation of $76 million 
     dollars. In today's dollars that would equal $228 million.
       In 1993, 20 years later GPO's direct appropriation was $119 
     million dollars and in 1994 the direct appropriation is 
     $121.9.

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